THE DEER HUNTER (1978) Directed by Michael Cimino
I'd seen parts- including the ending- before, but tonight I caught all of THE DEER HUNTER on Retroplex, one of the movie stations I get. The first thing I have to say is its a great-looking movie, maybe one of the most attractive movies I've ever seen. And the shots of the mountains where the guys go hunting before going off to war are matched by the shots of their hometown and the homes and steelmills. Another thing: look how young everyone is. Espcially Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken. They look like kids in this movie.
Watching the movie I started to feel a little sad. Not about what was going on on screen but thinking about 1978 and how my parents and aunts and uncles probably saw THE DEER HUNTER on HBO in 1979 or 1980 and how things were so different then and now they're so much older.
Michael Cimino's next movie, HEAVEN'S GATE, was a big failure and hugely over-budget. He had a few more projects over the years, the biggest probably being a remake of THE DESPERATE HOURS (1990) with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins right before he became Hanibal Lector. I've read stories about how crazy Cimino was while he made HEAVEN'S GATE and how coked out the cast and crew was and I'd like to read the book that was written about its production, Final Cut. I'd also like to see the movie itself.
I've got about 20 movie stations but they never play movies like that. I've always wanted to see ISHTAR too. I hear it's not so bad and is actually kind of funny.
Anyway, this is what I read about Cimino: prior to making THE DEER HUNTER he was interested in doing a remake of THE FOUNTAINHEAD, and, even more surprisingly, he was almost the director of FOOTLOOSE. That would've made for an interesting resume. THE DEER HUNTER, HEAVEN'S GATE, FOOTLOOSE.
Remember, William Freidkin is the director of THE FRENCH CONNECTION, THE EXORCIST, and the video for Laura Branigan's "Self Control".
Note: Tomorrow we'll talk about WILD AT HEART (1990).
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
I'm tempted
Right by where I work there are two record stores: Turn It Up- a used record store, and Newbury Comics- a chain record store that also sells used CDs. Both are great and I spend a lot of time at each.
Right now Turn It Up has a CD that I really want to get, but then again, it's kind of a waste. It's a CD maxi- single for The Pixies's "Alec Eiffel". It's got the same B-sides as "Planet Of Sound" so I don't need the music. But I really like the sleeve. It's got a cool cover, but what I like best is the back cover. And what I like best about that is the eye on the top. I especially like how it has a border around it.
The Trompe Le Monde-era isn't my favorite time for Pixies sleeve art, but there are some aspects of it that I really admire. The back cover of TLM is one of the best Pixies images- beautiful and a great idea. And the "Alec" CD package goes along well with that image.
It only costs $3 and I get paid tomorrow. This time tomorrow night it might be mine.
Good night.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Movies
Right now I'm watching a movie called P2 on Sci-Fi. It's supposed to be pretty good. I hope it is. Weird choice for a title though. I read somewhere that Wes Bentley, who's in the movie, was hooked on heroin for about ten years and a lot of times I just did movies for money for drugs. I don't know if P2 is one of them.
We'll talk more later.
We'll talk more later.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
SOMEWHERE
Somewhere (2010) Sofia Coppola
After the rough time she had with The Godfather Part III I hate to talk shit about Sofia Coppola but I'm really bothered by her 2010 movie Somewhere.
Why would anybody make this movie?
I waste a lot of time. I admit it. But this kovie is a waste of everyone's time. Anyone who has ever watched this movie has had their time wasted, so it amazes me that some people- like Roger Ebert- praised it.
Stephen Dorff (who I've disliked since the 1980s. He's a less talented Ethan Hawke (who I think sucks also) and I don't even like his chest hair) plays a bored, boring straight actor.
Here we see a shot of two woman pole dancing. Then a shot of Dorff lying in bed looking sleepy. Back and forth, back and forth. Later, he effortlessly gets a lady at a party into bed. They're having fun for about a minute, then he's fast asleep.
This is Coppola's way of showing us that Dorff isn't enjoying his life; he isn't even feeling it.
Every scene, every shot, I think Why? Why does she keep showing 20 second shots of Dorff in the shower? It doesn't further the story, it doesn't help introduce us to the character, it's not visually interesting, it's not even sexy. Later we see footage of Ghandi on Dorff's TV late at night. Then a shot of him lying in bed watching, the same way he watched the pole dancers.
Whatever Coppola has to say with this movie she should've just said. She's could've written a one page essay and payed to have it run in Vanity Fair or Good Housekeeping. Something like:
"Some actors, despite their success, are very bored with their lives. But if they try to connect with their children it will help them mature and find happiness."
Wait, she doesn't even need a full page ad. She could print up postcards, Stephen Dorff's picture on one side, text on the other. Or she could ask The Strokes to set that statement to music.
But that bullshit message is not enough to carry a boring, unattractive movie like Somewhere.
And one more thing. Why is it that Mac Culkin or Dakota Fanning has a hit movie and then afterwards every single child actor in a movie is either a fanning or a Culkin? Is it studio pressure? Go with a name people might know?
In conclusion, I dislike Stephen Dorff.
After the rough time she had with The Godfather Part III I hate to talk shit about Sofia Coppola but I'm really bothered by her 2010 movie Somewhere.
Why would anybody make this movie?
I waste a lot of time. I admit it. But this kovie is a waste of everyone's time. Anyone who has ever watched this movie has had their time wasted, so it amazes me that some people- like Roger Ebert- praised it.
Stephen Dorff (who I've disliked since the 1980s. He's a less talented Ethan Hawke (who I think sucks also) and I don't even like his chest hair) plays a bored, boring straight actor.
Here we see a shot of two woman pole dancing. Then a shot of Dorff lying in bed looking sleepy. Back and forth, back and forth. Later, he effortlessly gets a lady at a party into bed. They're having fun for about a minute, then he's fast asleep.
This is Coppola's way of showing us that Dorff isn't enjoying his life; he isn't even feeling it.
Every scene, every shot, I think Why? Why does she keep showing 20 second shots of Dorff in the shower? It doesn't further the story, it doesn't help introduce us to the character, it's not visually interesting, it's not even sexy. Later we see footage of Ghandi on Dorff's TV late at night. Then a shot of him lying in bed watching, the same way he watched the pole dancers.
Whatever Coppola has to say with this movie she should've just said. She's could've written a one page essay and payed to have it run in Vanity Fair or Good Housekeeping. Something like:
"Some actors, despite their success, are very bored with their lives. But if they try to connect with their children it will help them mature and find happiness."
Wait, she doesn't even need a full page ad. She could print up postcards, Stephen Dorff's picture on one side, text on the other. Or she could ask The Strokes to set that statement to music.
But that bullshit message is not enough to carry a boring, unattractive movie like Somewhere.
And one more thing. Why is it that Mac Culkin or Dakota Fanning has a hit movie and then afterwards every single child actor in a movie is either a fanning or a Culkin? Is it studio pressure? Go with a name people might know?
In conclusion, I dislike Stephen Dorff.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Yer Ghost
These are some images that I just came across and think are pretty cool. I think some of the pictures are from the 7 inch and others are from the CD single or the 12 inch.
Note: Notice how similar the last image is to the artwork for The Pixies's Bossanova text.
1993
I guess at some point back in 1993 you could buy this poster set from 4AD or v23. I'd love to have it. They're so beautiful. Safari has an amazing cover- I love the rainbow- colored gorillas and elephants and the colors and different directions of the text. And the Frank Black: Frank Black poster- the colors are perfect.
My favorite, of course, is the Belly poster. All the differnt circle fascinate me. The only Belly record I own is the "Gepetto" 7 inch but I want them all. And a while back I found a website that shows the fronts, backs, and labels of a bunch of Belly 45s, but the problem is the page soesn't let you take the pictures- you can only post a link to their page. It sucks.
It don't matter if you're black and white
Let's start the new year with some Belly and Throwing Muses from the olden days.
Movies, good and bad
I was just over at Ken Levine's blog, By Ken Levine, and he had written about certain movies and directors being over-praised. This is because of the new Diablo Cody movie Young Adult. Then he brought up the fact that Woody Allen, because he's done some great work, is able to get away with making a lot of shitty movies- movies that are praised beause he made them but would be ignored otherwise.
A few readers chimesd in to complain about Young Adult, Cody, and Juno ( I don't think anyone mentioned Jennifer's Body. That means none of them have seen it). I think Cody is unfairly criticized. I'm not saying she's perfect; I just think people complain about the wrong things. A lot of people say about Juno that teenagers don't really talk like that, but that doesn't matter at all.
Like Ayn Rand always said, she didn't want to write about the people she saw everyday. She wrote about the people that she wanted to see everyday.
And would you rather watch a realistic movie about teen pregnancy where the girl cries for 2 hours and searches her soul for an answer, or do you want to see a movie where the girl is clever and has a little fun with her situation? I like Juno just the way it is. If people don't talk like that then maybe they should.
Quentin Tarentino gets a lot of shit for having characters that sound like him, especially in Death Proof, but I like his voice and I like the things he has to say. I don't care if all the charcters sound the same either, like on The West Wing when Aaron Sorkin was writing it. Having one persons stamp on a work is almost always better than something done by a group of writers. The focus is stronger. It's one person's vision.
Anyway, Happy New Year.
A few readers chimesd in to complain about Young Adult, Cody, and Juno ( I don't think anyone mentioned Jennifer's Body. That means none of them have seen it). I think Cody is unfairly criticized. I'm not saying she's perfect; I just think people complain about the wrong things. A lot of people say about Juno that teenagers don't really talk like that, but that doesn't matter at all.
Like Ayn Rand always said, she didn't want to write about the people she saw everyday. She wrote about the people that she wanted to see everyday.
And would you rather watch a realistic movie about teen pregnancy where the girl cries for 2 hours and searches her soul for an answer, or do you want to see a movie where the girl is clever and has a little fun with her situation? I like Juno just the way it is. If people don't talk like that then maybe they should.
Quentin Tarentino gets a lot of shit for having characters that sound like him, especially in Death Proof, but I like his voice and I like the things he has to say. I don't care if all the charcters sound the same either, like on The West Wing when Aaron Sorkin was writing it. Having one persons stamp on a work is almost always better than something done by a group of writers. The focus is stronger. It's one person's vision.
Anyway, Happy New Year.
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